The only real cure for a hangover is sobriety. However, you can help ease the agony of the morning after a night of drinking.
Last Tuesday two lectures on the effects of hangovers were held on the Gorham campus. The lectures were overseen by Robin Hoose, coordinator of the fitness center, office of recreational sports. Stephanie Dubois, senior health fitness major, ran the lecture in Anderson Hall.
“Alcohol is a depressant,” Dubois said. “And the more you drink the more it affects you, not only in the form of a next morning headache and dry mouth.”
Dubois introduced several statistics on the levels of alcohol consumption and the effect on the body. Each student was given some handouts and charts that stated the likely damage done at rising blood alcohol levels, or BAL. The maximum legal BAL while operating a vehicle in the State of Maine is 0.08 percent. According to a handout, the average female can reach that level after only two drinks, the average male after three.
The lectures did not only pertain to hangovers. They were also intended to raise the question of the need for alcohol in general.
Dubois incorporated herself in many of the examples. She has slowed down on drinking with her increased knowledge of the deprivation alcohol causes. Alcohol can rapidly affect your overall mental health, in the short- and long-term. For example, a blood alcohol level of 0.1 will likely cause you to lose basic coordination. At 0.2, many people would start throwing up. At 0.3 you could black out. And it gets progressively worse.
The feeling of having a hangover comes from dehydration. You can avoid this by doing a number of things: drinking water while you consume alcoholic beverages, avoiding doing shots, drinking more slowly and in moderation, and avoiding salty foods. And the next day? The most common and reliable cure is to just sleep it off.
Another factor that helps determin your probability of intoxication is your gender. Due to muscle mass and enzymes that are more prevalent in males, men can generally deal with alcohol intake much more easily.
A major theme in the discussion was the significant amount of money you can save if you’re not spending it on liquor.
“The average student spends about $900 a year on alcohol,” Dubois said. “That is twice as much as a student will likely spend on books.”
Dubois recommended keeping a drinking diary to record how much money you spend on alcohol. At the end of a month or so you have a good idea of how much cash you could have saved by not drinking.
You would also be saving yourself some extra pounds, she said. There are seven kilo-calories per gram of alcohol.
“It just gets stored as extra calories,” Dubois said. “Drinking alcohol is much worse than eating fat.”
So while the meeting was as much a recommendation for personal prohibition as it was a tutorial for dealing with alcohol, some of the students in attendance were surprised by the facts they were given.
“It really gives you a new perspective on drinking,” Andrew Hodgkins, sophomore music major, said. “And I really hate waking up with a hangover.”